This page is still under
construction. Background information on wired
telegraphy will be added here.

A full size replica of first Samuel F.B. Morse's demonstration model of
1837. This is a copy of the apparatus built from a series of measurements
and photos from the collection of the Science Museum in London. The pen register
receiver is below. The "port rule" transmitter is in the foreground.

Morse "Port rule" transmitter. This is the first
transmitter developed by Morse and Vail. It is a good example of
how inventors frequently rely on familiar paradigms. This
apparatus was built on a printing press paradigm, complete with
composting stick and movable type.

Port Rule moveable type

A few pieces of moveable
type from the Port-rule are shown at left. Morse used a code of 1-9, and
a codebook was used to convert between sequences of numbers and the
words they represented. For example, the sequence "8732" might mean
"Reply requested."

The idea of using a key for transmission didn't occur until later, when,
during tests of the Baltimore-Washington line, Vail began sending code by
dipping the wires into the mercury cups by hand - a method he found much
easier and faster than arranging the type in the port-rule. Shortly
after he developed the first crude telegraph key, called the "Finger key:"

Vail Finger Key
Reproduction of original version

Not long after he developed the finger key,
Vail designed an improved version called the "Lever Correspondent."
The key was used in the famous 1844 demonstration between
Washington D.C. and Baltimore, along with a new system of signals developed
by Vail known as the "Morse Alphabet", or Morse code as it is more
commonly known today.

Vail Lever Correspondent
Replica of 1844 version

Below is a "camelback" key from the mid 19th
century. Named for their characteristic "hump", camelback keys were
among the first telegraph keys placed into commercial use.

European Camelback Key
Mid 19th Century

Pair of Two-Needle Railway Block Telegraphs

Cooke-Wheatstone Double-Needle Telegraph
ca. 1840's

Cooke-Wheatstone Single Needle Telegraph
ca. 1850's

Double Current Telegraph Key
British Post Office
ca. 1850's
Used with the Cooke-Wheatstone Single Needle Telegraph

Many people
are not aware that Morse didn’t invent the telegraph. What he did was
invent a particular form of electromagnetic telegraph – one that was
elegantly simple and required little maintenance. He (or rather his
assistant Alfred Vail) also developed the Morse code. In the early days
of the telegraph there were many other attempts to develop methods of
communication by wire, and one of these, the Hughes Telegraph, was
especially unusual.

What makes the
Hughes unique? On the sending side, instead of using a Morse key, the
operator uses a piano key – or keyboard, to be more precise. The
receiver, instead of marking dots and dashes on a paper strip, actually
spells out the text of the message. This was quite unusual for the
time.

These devices were
very popular in France, where there were likely many more piano and
harpsichord players than telegraphers. The piece we have in the museum
was operated on the Paris-Milan line. Unfortunately they were quite
temperamental and suffered frequent breakdowns. Transmission speed was
also much slower than the Morse system and so the Hughes system was
eventually replaced by the much simpler (and cheaper) Morse apparatus.
Very few survive today.

Alphabet Dial Telegraphs

Breguet-Style Dial Telegraph
French
1870

Demonstration Dial Telegraph Receiver
French
1870

Dial Telegraph
Sender and Receiver Combination
Italian
1860

Alphabet Dial Telegraph
Loiseau
French
1850-1860

Dial Telegraph
Deleuil
French
1855-1865

Ruhmkorf Alphabet Dial Telegraph
French
1840

The telegraph is an
early example of the Wheatstone apparatus and is made from silver,
brass, mahogany and iron. See pg. 100 figs. 13a and 13b in Pioneers of
Electrical Communication.

Norton
was the first telegraph manufacturer in New York City and worked at this
address in 1851. He was also on the first board of directors of the
Magnetic Telegraph company in 1846. In Samuel F.B. Morse, His Life and
Letters (edited by Morse's son Edward Lind Morse), the frontispiece
photograph in Vol. 2 is of S.F.B. Morse holding this exact Norton
register in his hand. Original hand made chain is also present on this
register.

John Dean Caton was an associate justice
of the Supreme Court in Illinois and later became resident of the
Illinois and Mississippi telegraph line and a telegraph manufacturer.
This is a very early example from the Caton shop from the early 1850's.

Demonstration Telegraph Register
Daniel Davis
1840's

This
apparatus was part of the collection of J.M. Wightman objects found
together. It was likely sold by Wightman whose 1842 catalog is bound
with 1842 edition of the Davis Manual of Magnetism.

Demonstration Telegraph Register
American
1850 - 1860

Very early "harp" design register.
This apparatus came with a paper label:" Made by Mr. J.Q. Vanvalkenberg in
about 1870 (secured in 1926). No. 80 from Historical Collection of Charles
W. Jack, Iona, Michigan." From the early design and very early coils, this
apparatus appears to date Circa 1850-1860.

Provenance: from the Charles Came collection of philosophical and
telegraph instruments - see Rittenhouse Vol. 5, No. 4 1991 pgs. 118-128.
The U-shaped electromagnet and binding posts, as well as the provenance
suggests manufacture date circa 1850.

Fancier and more
elaborate design American telegraph register by very famous maker.
Elaborately turned and cut brass, with large gutta-purcha
electromagnetic coils.

Demonstration Telegraph Register and Key
Chamberlain
1840's

This is a demonstration apparatus meant to
show how electromagnetism can be applied to transmit intelligence over a
distance. Chamberlain was a philosophical instrument maker in Boston and
displayed/sold Davis apparatus in the 1840's.

Each letter of the alphabet is printed around the top
edge, and has a corresponding coil of wire. A character is sent by
passing a current through the corresponding coil, creating a magnetic
field which turns the needle to indicate which character is being sent.

This device is one of a generation of telegraph
devices invented before the development of Morse code. The
response of the needle is very slow and each alphabetic character
requires a separate wire between the transmitter and receiver, or 26
wires in all. "Needles" to say, (sorry) these early telegraphs
were not very practical and saw little commercial use.